SFO departures

[Nuno Santos]

Hi,

Today I was flying KSFO-KLGB and I was quite confused with the following:

I filed OFFSH7 SXC for the route, I took this from Flight Aware, so it is a real life route. It is the route that makes most sense because usually flights from San Francisco to LGB go to Catalina (SXC) and from there they are vectored for the approach or proceed to SLI. But to my surprise Clearance Delivery cleared me for the OFFSH7 RZS transition (San Marcos). That's allright I thought, it makes for something different, I will probably be vectored after RZS. However, after contacting LA Center I was sent direct to SXC. So, my initial plan was right, I thought. Then why did Clearance changed it?

Another thing that I didn't get besides the transition was the assigned departure runway. Let's look at the weather at SFO when I departed:

KSFO 190056Z 25019G24KT 10SM FEW009 BKN200 16/08 A2990 RMK AO2 SLP124 T01560083=

So I planned for one of the 28s. But I was assigned 01L I nearly refused it but I still don't feel enough confident on the network for that. I know that IRL the pilot in command always has the last word regarding the safety of his flight, this is flight simming and no one gets hurt, but wasn't this a dangerous take off with gusting tailwind? Are the 01s the preferred departure runways at SFO? And if so, what are the crosswind/tailwind limits?

[Peter Grey]

Hello,

First off thanks for the feedback, clearly some mistakes were made on our end here and I will be reeducating our controllers who were on at that time.

I listened to our recordings of your flight and here is what I found. The controller did incorrectly clear you via RZS instead of SXC. Our record of your flight plan shows that he put SXC in your flight plan so he most likely misspoke. This also explains why center cleared you direct to SXC later on without issuing a reroute clearance. This was a mistake on our end and I'll ensure the controller working you is aware of what happened.

Regarding the winds, SFO does prefer runway 1L/R for departure. At KSFO the limits for changing to another runway are a 20 knot crosswind or a 10 knot tailwind. Based on the METAR you provide runway 28L/R should have been used.

However, from what my records show you departed KSFO at at little after 5 PM pacific, or just after 0000Z. Based on that time the current METAR would have been:

KSFO 182356Z 27017KT 10SM FEW009 BKN200 17/09 A2991 RMK AO2 PK WND 28026/2315 SLP127 T01670089 10172 20150 58006

Which while a strong crosswind, would normally result in an assignment of runway 1L or 1R for departure at KSFO. The METAR you provide is from about 30 minutes after you departed based on our records.

However, regardless of which METAR is correct the pilot ALWAYS has the authority to request another runway and we will always do what we can to accommodate that request (it may result in a delay for TO if we are busy).

Thank you very much for the feedback and let me know if you have any further questions.

[Nuno Santos]

Hi Peter, thanks for your reply.

I didn't know the 01s were the prefered runways for departures, perhaps it's in the charts but I overlooked it. Anyway, next time in such conditions I will request the 28s. When I started this topic I knew I had strong cross/tailwind so when I went searching for the METAR I searched for my local time instead of zulu time (I am one hour ahead zulu) hence my mistake.

Regards the transition is no big deal really, like I said it could have been interesting for a change (I've flown this route many a time on other networks,mostly without ATC), it was just the disagreement between the two controllers that left me wondering.

Next time I'll make sure I will ask for confirmation from the controller if I spot something "strange", they are only human and can make mistakes, especially in busy times like in the past few days. So, it's always good to double check, lesson learnt. It's just that being new to the network and seeing how professional it is and how good and self confident the controllers sound, I still feel a bit shy about making requests or pointing out something that I don't agree with.